Back in April, it was announced that the "Fujiko F. Fujio Masterpiece Theater: Doraemon" reprint series in CoroCoro Comic would be coming to an end with the May 2026 issue. This marked the conclusion of one of the few remaining print serializations for the iconic manga.
However, recent buzz on X (formerly Twitter) in Japan suggests there's more to the story. An insider has alleged that the reason *Doraemon* is no longer featured in *CoroCoro Comic* is due to a major blunder by publisher Shogakukan, one that reportedly infuriated the rights management company for creator Fujiko F. Fujio and led to the two parties parting ways.
The incident in question unfolded in the pages of *CoroCoro Comic* this year. Readers who bought every issue quickly discovered that the chapter of "Fujiko F. Fujio Masterpiece Theater: Doraemon" published in the February 2026 issue (released January 15) was the exact same story that ran in the April 2026 issue (released March 13).
Shogakukan subsequently admitted to the error and issued a formal apology on March 17.
"The installment of 'Fujiko F. Fujio Masterpiece Theater: Doraemon' published in the February 2026 issue of Monthly CoroCoro Comic (released January 15, 2026) and the April 2026 issue (released March 13) was the same work. Publishing the same piece twice within a two-month span was an operational error on the part of the editorial department. We will be more diligent in our magazine production to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future."
This was a monumental mistake, marking the first time in *CoroCoro Comic*'s 49-year history that the same story was serialized twice, let alone in such a short timeframe. It's an almost unimaginable editorial blunder.
On X, Takeshi Yamanaka, a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief of *Weekly Gendai*, claimed that when Shogakukan executives went to apologize for the incident, they only managed to further anger the team at Fujiko Pro.
It is crucial to emphasize that the following details are from Yamanaka's claims on X and have not been officially confirmed by Shogakukan.
According to his post:
Three high-level staff members, including the editor-in-chief, were either replaced or suspended.
Representatives from Fujiko Pro walked out of the apology meeting.
A decision was subsequently made to terminate the partnership with *CoroCoro Comic*.
Adding fuel to the fire, media reports and fans noted that in the *Doraemon* anime episodes aired after May 16, 2026, the credit line "Serialized in: CoroCoro Comic"—a staple since the show's inception—was removed from the opening sequence. This has led many to speculate that the serialization ended on bad terms.
Many people assume *CoroCoro Comic* featured *Doraemon* simply because it was a popular flagship title, but the history is actually the reverse.
Originally, *Doraemon* chapters were scattered across various grade-specific learning magazines published by Shogakukan, such as *Shogaku Ichinensei* (First-Grade Elementary). One of the primary reasons *CoroCoro Comic* was launched in 1977 was to consolidate these scattered *Doraemon* stories into a single magazine for easy reading.
In other words, *CoroCoro Comic* wasn't just "a magazine that ran Doraemon"—it was "the magazine created so everyone could read Doraemon."
It's important to note that the partnership has ended with *CoroCoro Comic* specifically, not Shogakukan as a whole. *Doraemon* continues to be published in other magazines like *Shogaku Ichinensei*, *Televi-Kun*, *Yochien*, and *CoroCoro Ichiban!*
However, it bears repeating that the details concerning "what happened at the apology meeting" and "Fujiko Pro angrily terminating the contract" are currently based on claims and speculation from industry insiders on social media. They are not facts officially confirmed by either Shogakukan or Fujiko Pro.
The only publicly confirmed information is the reprint error, the official apology, and the cessation of the *Doraemon* serialization in *CoroCoro Comic*. The actual state of the relationship between the two companies remains officially unaddressed.